Child Poverty Alliance Beneath the Surface

132 Pages·2014·1.35 MB·English

by  Pepper Collective

Child Poverty Alliance
campaigning to eradicate child poverty
Beneath the Surface
Child Poverty in Northern Ireland
BENEATH THE SURFACE

Child Poverty in Northern Ireland

The findings, interpretations and conclusions of the articles included in this report reflect
the views of the individual authors, who were given an open brief to give their personal
reflections on child poverty in Northern Ireland. Their views do not reflect the policies or
views of the Child Poverty Alliance. The Child Poverty Alliance accepts no responsibility
for errors. The designations in this publication do not imply an opinion on legal status of
any country or of its authorities.
© 2014 Child Poverty Alliance. All rights reserved.
Designed and printed by PepperCollective.com
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report is the result of work undertaken by the Child Poverty Alliance. The
editors would like to thank all the contributors, not only for their papers but also for
their ongoing work in highlighting the issue of child poverty in Northern Ireland.
The quotes contained within the publication were extracts of interviews with
parents conducted on behalf of the Child Poverty Alliance by Barnardo’s Northern
Ireland; we appreciate the time given by the parents to discuss these issues.
Special thanks to Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol for his support of this
publication, to Orlaith Minogue for her expertise in editing and Advice NI,
Barnardo’s Northern Ireland, Children in Northern Ireland, the Family Fund, Save
the Children NI and the Quaker Service for their kind financial contributions.
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Les Allamby was the director of the Law Centre until taking up post as the Chief
Commissioner at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in September
2014. The chapter is written in a personal capacity.
Dr Bronagh Byrne is a Lecturer in Social Policy at Queen’s University Belfast. Her
research interests lie in children’s rights, disability policy and the relationship
between international human rights law and policy development. Bronagh has a
particular research interest in the potential of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which incorporates a range of social policy
areas, in creating a more inclusive society.
Dr Agata D’Addato is Senior Policy Coordinator at Eurochild, a network which
brings together over 100 member organisations from across Europe promoting the
rights and welfare of children. Eurochild aims at monitoring and influencing EU
policy to ensure the rights of children and, in particular, the most vulnerable
children are taken into account.
Rachel Dennison is a Research and Policy Officer for Employers For Childcare
Charitable Group. To date she has completed several reports including the
Northern Ireland Childcare Cost Survey series (2010-2013) and ‘Managing
Expectations, a survey of new mums and dads’ (2013).
Ellen Finlay is Policy Officer at Children in Northern Ireland, responsible for policy
analysis. She is co-chair of the Child Poverty Alliance and sits on the Policy Steering
Group of Eurochild. She is also a Board Member of Hazelwood Integrated Primary
School.
Kevin Higgins is Head of Policy and Research with Advice NI. He has worked in the
advice sector for over 20 years within an independent advice centre (Ballynafeigh
Community Development Association), a CAB (Falls Road) and with Law Centre NI
(Legal Adviser). A large part of his work revolves around addressing social policy
issues raised by Advice NI members and engaging with key stakeholders.
Paddy Hillyard is Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast. His main
research interest is in social order and control in modern welfare states focusing on
a number of substantive areas: 'crime', social harm, political violence, poverty and
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

inequality. Recently his research has focused on poverty, conflict and inequality in
Northern Ireland.
Goretti Horgan is a lecturer in Social Policy and Deputy Policy Director of the ARK
project (www.ark.ac.uk). She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern
Ireland Anti-Poverty Network. Research interests are child rights and women’s
rights, especially child poverty, welfare reform and poverty among disabled
people. Much of her research is carried out with children’s organisations and other
NGOs.
Grace Kelly is Research Assistant with the School of Sociology, Social Policy and
Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. Her main area of work to date has
covered issues relating to indicators of social need, socially perceived necessities of
life, the measurement of poverty and social exclusion.
Anne Moore is Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager for Save the Children.
Previously she worked as a Policy Officer, Press Officer and teacher. She has a BA
Hons from QUB in Political Science, History and French, a PGCE from Edinburgh
University, MA in 20th century history from the University of Ulster and LLM in
Human Rights Law from QUB.
Katie Schmuecker is a Programme Manager in the Poverty Team at Joseph
Rowntree Foundation (JRF), where she is working on the development of JRF’s
Anti-Poverty Strategies for the UK. She also manages programmes of research on
the future of the UK labour market and working poverty, income adequacy and the
cost of living.
Professor Mike Tomlinson is Head of School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social
Work at Queen’s University Belfast. Much of his work has focused on the political
economy of the Northern Ireland conflict. Mike has been working with colleagues
from six universities across the UK, participating in the Poverty and Social Exclusion
in the UK project, supported by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Sanne Velthuis joined JRF in 2013 where she works as a programme assistant for
the Anti-Poverty Strategies for the UK programme. Prior to that she worked for
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

StepChange Debt Charity and completed an MA in International Social
Transformation at Leeds University.
Mary Anne Webb has over twenty years’ policy and practice experience working in
the voluntary sector. Since 2007 she has worked for Barnardo’s NI a leading
children’s charity providing services to 10,000 children, young people and families
in Northern Ireland as a senior Policy and Research Officer.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
& NEXT STEPS

CHAPTER 1:
CHILD RIGHTS AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

 Fighting child poverty should be framed in a child rights approach which
should be applied in internal market, trade, finance and infrastructure
policy-making, as well as the more obvious areas of education, health,
employment and welfare.
 Targeted action, designed to protect the most vulnerable and
marginalised children, needs to be embedded in a comprehensive child
rights strategy.
 The traditional silo and departmental approaches are not helpful or cost
effective. Children’s rights need to be mainstreamed.
 Investing in children is a priority especially in hard times. The Executive
has responsibility to implement the European Commission’s 2013
Recommendation on Investing in Children and should access the
structural funds to progress this.

CHAPTER 2:
CHILD POVERTY IN NORTHERN IRELAND – RESULTS FROM THE PSE STUDY

 There is general agreement that the measurement of child poverty is
based on both low income and deprivation.
 Adjusting incomes for different household types, measuring before or
after housing costs, and the selection of deprivation items all have an
impact on poverty rates.
 The consensual poverty method, which takes account of what the
population considers to be basic necessities, is described. The study
found a high level of agreement on the basic necessities for children.
 The study found that only a few children lacked very basic necessities such
as three meals a day and adequate clothing, but a third of all children
(150,000) were deprived of an annual holiday and 75,000 children are
growing up in cold and damp homes.
 Overall, the study found that 24% or 106,000 children are living in low
income households and are deprived of four or more items.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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 The study found those who had a ‘high experience’ of the conflict were
significantly more deprived than those with no conflict experience and
that a fifth of all children are living with an adult/s who have ‘high
experience’.

CHAPTER 3:
CHILD POVERTY AND DISABILITY

 Children who have a disability and children who live in a household with a
disabled parent or sibling are most likely to experience poverty.
 To treat disability benefits as income in the measurement of poverty
masks the true extent of child poverty.
 Once benefits are removed from income, the child poverty rate increases
by 4% with the disparity greater in Northern Ireland than the UK, due
largely to higher levels of disability.
 The introduction of further benefit cuts risks having a disproportionate
impact on child poverty rates compared to the rest of the United
Kingdom.
 The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) should guide
ministerial fulfilment of the right to an adequate standard of living for
children living with disabilities.

CHAPTER 4:
CHILD POVERTY, LOW PAY AND THE LABOUR MARKET

 For the first time, child poverty in Northern Ireland is highest in working
families.
 Changes in the labour market are driving up poverty and inequality with
work no longer a guarantee out of poverty.
 The rising employment rate masks the shift towards part time and insecure
employment as many low income families join the market on temporary
contracts in caring, leisure and other service occupations.
 These groups face a heightened risk of cycling between low paid work
and unemployment in what has become known as the low-pay, no-pay
cycle.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
& NEXT STEPS

 It is estimated that 25 per cent of Northern Ireland’s workforce was paid
less than the Living Wage in 2013.
 Northern Ireland suffers from longstanding educational inequality. A
substantial proportion of people aged 16-64 has few or no formal
qualifications (29.1 per cent in 2011) compared to England and Wales (15
per cent).
 Northern Ireland has fewer people with high level qualifications (23.6%
compared to 29.7 per cent in England and Wales).
 The welfare to work system presents a barrier to employment. Current
disincentives for second earners to work are set to worsen under Universal
Credit (UC), as the current design of UC does not include an earnings
disregard for second earners.
 Employment programmes need to be much more tightly targeted on low
income families.
 Policy makers should be concerned by the quality of jobs as well as the
quantity.
 A child poverty strategy must embrace employment, skills and workforce
development programmes.

CHAPTER 5:
CHILD POVERTY AND SOCIAL SECURITY – AN UNRAVELLING CONSENSUS

 Child poverty levels were reduced in the past through changes to the tax
and social security system. They account for four times the level of
decrease in relative poverty than changes in parental work patterns.
 Welfare reform since 2010 amounts to the largest shake-up of the social
security system for a generation.
 As detailed, there have been over thirty changes to reduce social security
expenditure since October 2010.
 The GB Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the contentious welfare bill in
Northern Ireland involve the introduction of Universal Credit to replace six
existing social security benefits and the replacement of Disability Living
Allowance for people of working age with Personal Independence
Payment.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
& NEXT STEPS

 The Institute for Fiscal Studies report illustrates the disproportionate
impact social security policy is having on child poverty in Northern Ireland.
Over the period of 2010 to 2020 relative child poverty will have increased
by 8.3 per cent and absolute child poverty by 11.5 per cent.
 Populist rhetoric has replaced support for social protection and created
hardship.
 An open debate of what can be done, at what cost and how it could be
paid for is needed urgently.

CHAPTER 6:
CHILD POVERTY AND CHILDCARE

 Childcare in Nordic countries is seen as a bulwark against child poverty.
 Childcare provision in Northern Ireland is inadequate, inflexible and too
expensive.
 Childcare impacts on the rate of child poverty in three ways: acts as a
barrier to employment for parents, places pressure on family incomes and
meets essential developmental needs of children.
 There is only one childcare place in Northern Ireland for every 8.6
children, with even more limited provision for children with disabilities and
special needs.
 There is a lack of flexibility failing to support shift work and irregular hours.
 It costs on average £158 per week or £16,432 for an average family with
two children. For low income families the cost of childcare takes up more
than 44 per cent of their disposable income.
 A high quality childcare system could reduce child poverty by up to one
half.
 Northern Ireland should follow the Nordic example by linking early years
and childcare policy and provision.

CHAPTER 7:
CHILD POVERTY AND EDUCATION

 There is a large gap between the educational achievement of children
living in poverty and children from better-off families.